Pellegrini’s statements:
(MCF news). “Duda suffered a hard knock in the training session and he’s not fit to play this match. The Copa didn’t make us lose focus from the League, we tried to do the best we could, but that didn’t stop us from doing what we do in the League. In the Copa the team showed that they can play at Real Madrid’s level, but we also made some mistakes so we have to keep on improving. Willy has been very important for us since last year, he had to make one mistake, but he’s an important player and he’s fully recovered.”
(Sporting-MCF). “It’s one of the most complicated stadiums to play. Manuel Preciado’s team are fighters and they’re going to go out to make the game complicated for us, have an intense match, and we hope to have the footballing weapons to overcome Sporting. The physical aspect is not a worrying subject, we’re coming from a few days’ holiday and there’s no problem. I don’t know anyone who demands more from themselves than Málaga. Internally, the coaching staff and the team are always demanding to the max.”
(An intense January). “We have the month of January in which there’ll be names in many teams floating about and 95 per cent of them are of no interest to Málaga. The goalkeeper – Kameni – is though. He’s unlinked from Espanyol and we’ll see what happens in the future. It’s not Málaga’s intention to be buying players in January, except if there’s a special case. It’s going to be a very demanding month with Valencia, a direct rival for us, after Atlético de Madrid, another direct rival, the Copa with Real Madrid, and now ahead of us we have Sporting, Barcelona and Sevilla; it’s complicated and I hope we can get the most amount of points as possible. It would be fundamental to get them in these two matches. There are still 21 matches and 63 points to play for, I’m more pragmatic in the sense that I’m not looking at which place we’re occupying on the table. It’s not a decisive month.”
(Managing Sporting’s intensity). “With the teams in the lower half of the table, there are always two parameters to measure: one, excessive anxiety, so they make mistakes; and the other is that this excessive anxiety gives them a boost as they want to get out of the situation that they’re in. We’re bound to feel their deficit and they’ll be 90 minutes of battle and we want to overcome Sporting out on the pitch.”